Monday, February 20, 2006

a traversing

by Pattiann Rogers

The easy parting of oaks and hickories,bays of willows, borders of pine and screensof bamboo down to the crux, grasses, bulrushesand reeds parting down to their fundamentalcores, the yielding of murky pond waters,layer upon layer giving way to the touch

of the right touch, the glassy, clearspring waters, bone and gristle alikeopening as if opening were ultimate fact,the parting of reflection allowing passage,and the cold, amenable skeleton of echo,the unlatching of march becoming as easily

accessible as the unlocking of mercy,as the revelation of stone splittingperfectly with the sound of the rightsound, everything, a nubbin of corn,a particle of power, the pose of the skyrelenting, and the sea swinging open

like the doors of a theater giving entranceto everyone, no fences, no barriers, no blindsto the parting of the abyss, not bolted,not barred from the utmost offeringof the dusk, enigma itself falling awayuntil all may enter all and pass among them.